According to Associated Press reports, former model Karen Sypher, 50, and Louisville University men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino, 57, are near the end of their year-long lawful battle. Sypher was found guilty of 3 counts of extortion, two counts of lying to the FBI and one count of retaliating against a witness. The catalyst for the charges was Sypher’s series of attempts to extort millions in hush cash from Pitino after a 2003 sexual encounter. Sypher originally claimed that Pitino raped her, but Pitino denied the claim and was not charged. Sypher might be going away to prison for up to 26 years, although her actual sentence is expected to be shorter.
Frightening calls and letters haunted Pitino
Court records indicate that Rick Pitino received numerous telephone messages and two letters. These messages asked for cash and gifts such as college tuition for Sypher’s son, in exchange for her silence over the affair. ”This was nothing more than a pure shakedown of Richard Pitino,” attorney Marisa Ford told jurors within the case. Attorney Marisa Ford said that “This was nothing more than a pure shakedown of Richard Pitino”. Sypher’s defense attorney complained that his client was being blackballed due to Pitino’s stature within the community.
Pitino and also the ‘unfortunate’ quarter-minute
In a emotionally charged six hours of testimony, Pitino described his late-night encounter with Sypher in a closed and deserted Italian restaurant. The sex was consensual and ‘unfortunate,’ he said. He wrestled with emotion as he described to the jury how difficult it had been for him to eventually tell his family about the affair which had no witnesses.
Sypher did not testify
The jury didn’t hear directly from Sypher, but they were allowed to view an unreleased television interview. The Pitino rape allegation came from that footage. She also corroborated Pitino’s testimony in which he gave assistance Tim Sypher $ 3,000 to give to Karen Sypher (then Karen Wise) for counseling and medical needs. In time, Karen Wise and Tim Sypher got married. Within the ensuing years, the couple bumped into Pitino numerous times at area functions. Pitino insisted that Karen Sypher had wanted the money for counseling and general medical needs, by Sypher claims she told Pitino she needed the cash for an abortion.
More troubling phone calls in 2009
AP reports indicate that Pitino revealed in jury testimony that he also received menacing phone calls from an unidentified man in February 2009. As previous phone calls and letters had done, Pitino was threatened with exposure of his sexual encounter with Karen Sypher. As outlined by the Louisville coach, “He mentioned the word rape. I got very sick to my stomach”. However, Pitino did not report these calls or the original event to the authorities for one more two months, as he “tried to contain the damaging information”.
Further reading
Associated Press
nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/38574025/ns/sports-college_basketball/
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